


People You Call Home

by vogue91



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 03:06:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13825155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vogue91/pseuds/vogue91
Summary: He was so clearly the prince, and it was clear that Lancelot was right about him, so Percival didn’t hesitate to smile.





	People You Call Home

“What’s he like?” he asked, his eyes wandering from a tree to the next.

Lancelot shook his head, then turned toward him.

“He’s much different from other princes I’ve known.” he answered, quickening the step and going ahead of him.

Percival smiled. His friend spoke often of his time in Camelot, but when he did so his eyes always seemed off. He had imagined that in that place Lancelot had buried his hopes and his expectations, and he had never asked too many questions.

But, right now, they were running there to help.

To help a man that hadn’t hesitated to banish Lancelot, Percival couldn’t help to think, but when he had dared showing this qualm of his to his friend, Lancelot had smiled.

“We’re not going for the king, Percival.” had been his enigmatic answer, for the first time adorned by a pair of shining eyes, the eyes of a man that was going to meet something far more alluring than a battle.

Then, when he had seen the very same look on his face when _they_ had gotten closer and had smiled to him, Percival understood.

Lancelot was a wanderer, just like him.

A wanderer, who had left his heart in the hands of those people who had let him go, not without regret, those very same people that now stood in front of him, looking at them with pure relief in their eyes.

When the blond one got closer to him, he had no doubts anymore.

He was so _clearly_ the prince, and it was clear that Lancelot was right about him, so Percival didn’t hesitate to smile.

What he wasn’t expecting, after his friend’s description, was the familiarity with which he welcomed them.

They went with them, without knowing where nor how that story was going to end.

They had been walking for a long time, when Lancelot went next to him, rested a hand on his shoulder and smiled to him.

“So?” he said, knowing that the other would’ve understood the meaning of that single word.

“He’s much different from other princes I’ve known.” he answered, with a grin. His friend smile, going ahead of him.

Percival stayed behind, looking at that slim crowd of men with whom he was.

His nature and his past had taught him that he didn’t have much to offer but his sword, his strength and his loyalty.

Yet in that moment, perhaps for the first time, something told him that it wasn’t going to be enough.

And, more importantly, he finally understood Lancelot.

Those people, even those he still didn’t know, it was in them that the idea of ‘home’ lived, an idea that had always been unknown to him. And looking at them he realized his friend was sincere when he said they weren’t there for the king, nor for the prince as such, nor for anybody else.

They were there because fighting was the right thing to do then, because it would’ve lead them on a path that, finally, would’ve had an end point.

Percival smiled, once again.

He breathed in deeply and, in the air, he thought he felt the unknown and beautiful smell of home.

 

_“Arise, sir Percival._

_Knight of Camelot.”_


End file.
